Heart
by The Madness Of My Life
Summary: 'Thank you for loving someone like me, who is a good for nothing… with such bad blood in my veins. Up to today… Thank you' Ace smiled through the pain.
1. Ace

**I got this idea pretty late one evening and had to write it, it will only be a short story (5 chapters I think), so enjoy!**

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Ace felt very, very weird right now. It had all started with that traitorous bastard, Teach. Thatch had found the Akuma no Mi that Teach wanted and by the rules of the Shirohige crew; finder's keepers. Thatch had waited, not eating the fruit because he wanted one last swim in the sea.

God, how he wished he had talked Thatch into eating it immediately. If he had, they wouldn't be here, fighting and losing precious nakama over his filthy existence. Why hadn't Oyaji just left him to his fate and that way saved his crew and allies.

Why, why, why!?

It really didn't make any sense to Ace. For the life of him, he couldn't understand why they were willing to wager a war for him. He was just the son of a demon; he shouldn't even have been born! Sure, he knew that Oyaji had accepted him for being the son of his enemy but even some of his allies would be after his head if they knew about his demon of a father.

But he hadn't talked Thatch into to eating the fruit; he hadn't been able to save Thatch, just like he hadn't been able to save Sabo.

And then he set after Teach, ignoring any and all arguments from his brothers; even Oyaji's words went unheard. But he had been so enraged over the fact that someone, his nakama, had killed another nakama, something he wasn't able to comprehend. The only thing that occupied his thoughts was that of avenging Thatch, nothing else.

The first place he had searched for Teach had been on one of the first islands in the Grand Line. The sight that had met him was gruesome. Bodies had been lying around in various states of decaying, the buildings were just mountains upon mountains of rubble. He hadn't lingered, simply turned around and continued to the next island.

He had eventually met Luffy in Alabasta. He had been ecstatic to see how much his empty headed little brother had grown, yeah he had seen the wanted poster, heck, he had one nailed to a wall on the Moby Dick! But nothing could compare to seeing him happy and full of life right in front of him. And all too soon he had to say goodbye to him again.

It wasn't to long after that, that he had found the traitor, on an island just a couple of islands before Sabaody. The fight had been quick, with him being thoroughly pounded into oblivion and then afterwards waking up on a marine ship heading for Impel Down.

The time he had spent there was something he had rather forget. It really was hell on earth, hearing the screams of the other inmates, their begging for death or release. He was grateful that he shared a cell with Jinbe, he didn't talk much, and when he did, it was not meaningless use of air.

He had used most of his time in Impel Down to think about Luffy and the Shirohige crew; he had even sunk so far into the madness that he started to imagine what life would have been for him and Luffy had they followed Gramps. He hastily let that thought disappear from his mind again.

Then came the day of his execution. It was eerie; his whole life he had wondered if he deserved to live, if anybody was happy that he was alive, and now he was transported off to his death, because some people didn't think he deserved to live; either for his choice of career or for his father's sins he did not know. All he knew was that he was supposed to die today.

On the way to the transport ship the warden had let it slip that someone had broken into Impel Down. Ace had not really listened to him until the name 'Mugiwara no Luffy' crossed is lips. It couldn't be, it just couldn't. His little brother, his last brother, had attempted to rescue him. That was not supposed to happen! Luffy should be with his crew, far away from here.

He had made a mad dash for the elevator, trying to get back so he could see Luffy; make him sail away so he could be safe. It had failed just like the rest of everything he tried to do as of late. There were to many marines supervising the transfer and he was caught within 10 seconds of trying to run.

After that he had been bound and gagged for the trip to Marineford. It had gone faster than he had thought and suddenly he was being led up the stairs to the scaffold.

Then the war had started and the pain. He had to sit there and watch his nakama being injured or brutally killed, while he couldn't do anything! And then as he had been prepared to meet his fate, his Luffy had turned up (and teamed up with Oyaji!) to save him.

And he had succeeded; he had been free for all of ten minutes when things had turned bad; Oyaji had been hit too many time to survive and Luffy had been too exhausted to be aware of his surroundings, and hadn't seen that bastard admiral taking a shot at him. It had only taken Ace a split second to decide what to do; Luffy would live at the cost of his own life.

When the hand of magma had forced it way into his back and out through his chest, it had hurt like hell. Then came the sweet smell of burnt human flesh, it made him want to throw up; then came the numbness.

''Thank you for loving someone like me, who is a good for nothing… with such bad blood in my veins. Up to today… Thank you!''

Then the darkness at the edges of his consciousness overcame him, the last thing he was aware of was Luffy's arms sneaking around him in a tightening grip.

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**I feel soooooo bad for not finishing my other story, His Wife, but this have been stuck in my head for a while and my life went a bit south, I dropped out of school, so there was somethings I had to do and then fanfiction moved down on my list a bit. Sorry!**


	2. Trafalgar

**Yo here is the new chapter!**

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Trafalgar Law was a peculiar man, or at least, many people saw him as such. In reality he was just enjoying his freedom. From a very early age, he had been forced to study the arts of cutting up living creatures and sewing them back together again. Sure it had been fun, gutting a pig to see how the organs were placed, desiccating frogs to see the difference between amphibian and mammal, but he had rather just experiment. His main focus was the endurance of the human body.

After a couple of years he had gained the nickname 'Surgeon of Death'. It certainly hadn't helped his reputation when he ate the Ope Ope no Mi. Now he was a pirate and free to whatever the hell he wanted!

For some time he had wondered if it was possible to gain another Akuma no Mi ability. He had thrown some theories around; some deemed outright ridicules, others just impossible. His latest hypotheses surrounded the aspect of heart swapping. If you substituted the hearts of a User and a non-User, the non-User would gain the powers of the User.

But that was just the basics. What he was interested in was the effect of a Users having both his own and another Users heart in one body. With a non-User, he would simply have higher blood pressure; but with a User it might be possible to attain the abilities of both hearts.

Unfortunately, he hadn't been able to find any test subjects to prove his hypotheses. Well, until now that was.

He and his crew had headed to Marineford as soon as they turned off the visual Den Den Mushi. The Heart pirates had arrived just in time to see Portgas getting a fist through his torso.

Law had immediately started calculating what would have to be done and then, without hesitation, he started shouting orders at the pirates around Mugiwara. A Clown like pirate, Bug or something, heard him and managed to get the brothers and a rather big fishman over to his submarine.

As Akagami ended the war, Law commanded his crew to get them away and just as they departed, he started the operation. He did not need to worry about blood type, as all Users were compatible with each other. The hard part came when he had to make sure that Mugiwara was stable, which would take time, time he didn't have.

He worked fast, faster than he had ever done before; this didn't only revolved around the young pirates life but also the completion of his experiment.

Inside the powers of his Room, he cut open the Mugiwara and began moving things (cutting a bit here and a bit there) to make room for the heart of Portgas. When that was done he went to work on getting the heart out, which wasn't exceptionally difficult, as Akainu had already blasted most of the things out of the way.

While most of Portgas' insides were charred and scorched his heart hadn't been damaged as much as he had feared. He lifted the heart out and moved back to Mugiwara; placing the heart just beside his own.

As the moving was done all he had to do was sew the pirate back together, connect the right blood vessels and make sure he had removed everything that was not supposed to be in the human body.

This was relatively easy done; though he was a bit worried over the fact that Portgas' heart, seemed to be a degree or two higher than what was considered normal, would be problematic for his experiment in the future. When that was done all that was left to do was wait.

Law sank down on the chair next to Luffy's bed and stated contemplating the turn of events; Whitebeard was dead, Luffy now had his brothers heart and the whole world had been stunned when the truth about Portgas' true father had been revealed and that would take some time to get over.

He had honestly no idea how this would turn out. When he woke, he would have to tell Mugiwara what he had done. But then came the problem, how to tell a simpleton like the rubber man what he had done? He figured he'd just be brash and get it over quickly like he always did, but knowing the straw hat wearing idiot, it would take him quite some time to get what he said. Given that he could get over the trauma he had suffered.

That was another thing that plagued the 'doctors' thoughts. How would such an emotionally driven person as Mugiwara get over a blow like that? It wouldn't be easy that he was sure of. To lose someone you held so dear would be devastating for any normal person, but for Luffy, he simply couldn't imagine what it would be like.

He looked over at the bed that held the object of his interest and sighed, well he would think of what to do when the boy awoke.

He listened to the occasional yell from some of his crewmembers as they worked around the submarine; they had finish treating the Shichibukai and were cleaning up after the mess that had been made. He would be all right as long as he did not do anything to demanding of his body.

Trafalgar yawned and got up, intending on finding his cabin and getting some sleep. As he passed some of his crewmates, he ordered them to head for Amazon Lily, the Maiden Island. The old man he had talked to at Sabaody had told him to meet up with him there, after he had picked up Luffy. He wondered how they were going to get on to the island as it was forbidden for men to step foot on it.

There had to be something special about Monkey, why else would the Dark Knight, Silvers Rayleigh, the right hand of the pirate king, take an interest in him. Well he could worry about that in the morning, now he just wanted to sleep. He entered his cabin, walked over to his bed, put his sword down beside the bed and laid down, promptly drifting off.

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**I don't know when I'll be able to get the next chapter, I'm going on a trip with my new school and there is no internet connection and I am not bringing my computer because I don't really trust the people I am going with not to steal my stuff (it's a lot like a social dumping place, though I'm only there to pass time to start on another education)**


	3. Luffy

**So I finally got the new chapter down, enjoy:**

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He shot up, the mask enclosing his mouth and nose still attached to his face, looking fanatic around to see if his brother was anywhere nearby. As he caught sight of the only other bed in the room and finally apprehended the fact that it was empty, his world darkened.

While he might be slightly more simple minded when it came to understanding the world around him, he was not a complete dolt. He knew that if Ace was not here the chances of him Ace being alive were slim. He had been badly injured and Ace had been worse off than he, so the only logical explanation would be that Ace had to spend more time in bed than him.

In a dark corner of his mind a little voice kept telling him that when Ace had passed out in his arms he had died no more than ten seconds later, but the rest of his mind had refused to listen and used a mental gomu-gomu no bazooka to smash the voice.

As he removed the mask footsteps could be heard approaching the door and a second later Tra-guy was walking over to him, a little shocked that he was awake but then quickly started to check on the medical equipment.

As Trafalgar looked at the number and lines he mused over the boy's quick awakening, maybe there had been something wrong with his predictions, Mugiwara shouldn't be awake yet, it wasn't humanly possible. It had only been one and a half week, he should have been under for at least four more days, but then again, it was Mugiwara that was on the table, he was not human so he should not have been so surprised, but he was anyway.

A sudden alarming beeping startled him out of his thought and brought his attention on the boy lying in the bed. He had pulled off the heart rate monitor and the machine reacted to the flatline by making loud noises to attract assistance.

Luffy opened his mouth to ask where Ace was but Tra-guy had already begun to tell him something, ''-ist's heart-…..-areful!''

''Huh?''

Trafalgar sighed, this was not what the fragile heart he had transplanted into the rubber man needed, he had to get him to slow down, if he couldn't his experiment might as well be classified as a failure from the start. ''Calm down Mugiwara-ya, Fire Fist's heart needs to settle down if it is to survive.''

He hadn't really understood what Tra-guy had said but what he got made him brighten up. He could remember that Tra-guy had been able to cut up the marines at Sabaody and they would still be alive, could he do the same to organs? That would mean that Ace could still be alive!

''Ace? Where is Ace?'' he yelled abruptly cutting off the doctor that had gone into a rambling about him tearing his stitches if he moved too much.

''Mugiwara-ya! Lay still!'' Law was getting really worried that his little experiment would end before it even really could start because the damned brat would, not, lay, down! After a short battle, well not much of a battle on Luffy's part seeing as he was weaker than Law at the moment, Law got his arms strapped to the headboard.

''Will you stay down?'' Law asked as the injured boy just kept struggling the bindings.

''But I have to know where Ace is!'' Mugiwara all but yelled.

''Fire fist is dead,'' if knowing that his brother was not there would get Mugiwara to calm down, or at least stop him from endangering his experiment, Law was going to tell him where he was, ''his heart is here but his body is probably already buried by the Whitebeard pirates.''

That didn't really help calming Luffy down, quite the opposite unfortunately, he started thrashing around trying to get out of the binds all the while the little evil voice in his head had picked up in strength and was whispering about how useless he was, that he couldn't even save his brother.

''NO! No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!'' Tears started to prickle in his eyes, ''Ace, Ace can't be dead! Where is he? Where is my brother?'' His big brother couldn't be dead, he just couldn't. Ace had promised him that he wouldn't die so he couldn't be dead!

The tears were streaming down his face as he wrestled his way out of the binds, faster than Tra-guy could manage to react, Luffy had run out of the door.

He went through twists and turns before he finally made it out on the deck of what looked to be a yellow submarine. For a moment he was blinded by the sudden light, having been sleeping for ten days it took a while before his eyes became accustomed to the light and he was able to take in his surroundings.

He was on a submarine, by an island, with nothing in sight besides the vast blue sea.

Maybe Ace was on the island. Well only one way to find out right?

He flung himself over the side, the forest on the island as his target and quickly started making his way by mowing down any vegetation in sight until he came upon a clearing where a large wagon of fruit and meat stood. A second later he spotted Jinbe standing beside it conversing with that weird Hammock girl.

''Ah! Jinbe-ossan! You know where Ace is?'' The boy's desperation stunned Jinbe for a moment, how could he tell the boy that his beloved older brother was dead, it would crush the young man, he just couldn't. And yet he knew it would just hurt him even more if first found out later.

''Ace is dead, Mugiwara-ya'' Tra-guy seemed to have caught up to him.

''No! Ace has to be alive! He promised he would never die so he can 't be dead!''

''He died at Marineford after taking the hit meant for you,'' the doctor sounded so convincing that Luffy had to look at Jinbe to see if Tra-guy was telling the truth. When the former warlord's head went up and down in agreement Luffy's world fell into a thousand pieces.

But the other supernova wasn't finish talking. ''Though his death had some positive side effects. I, for one, could finally start on my experimentation. I have transferred your brother's heart into your body in hope of you gaining the powers of the Mera-Mera no Mi, though his body might be dead his heart isn't. That and I thought you might like it. To know that your brothers heart is now residing within you,'' he sounded so sadistic when he said that.

That was too much for Luffy. His head swayed, his heart, well hearts now, beating rapidly and cold sweat formed on his face. Luffy couldn't deal with it and he curled up into a tight ball, his mind leaving the world surrounding him behind.

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**It took a while to get it done but I hope it's worth the wait.**

**Another reason why it took me some time is my trip last week. It didn't end so well for me, I had been there for just one night and then I got sick so I had to get picked up by my father... FML**

**And on the 13th of June I finally turned 18! Though the only real difference from when I was 17 is that I have to pay taxes and I can vote...**


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